KERRVILLE, TEXAS, December 19, 2018 — The H. E. Butt Foundation is growing, with office space now in Leakey and San Antonio and new initiatives focused on healthy families and children. But the Foundation is also expanding its Kerrville headquarters in a construction project that will erect three new buildings adjacent to its headquarters on Earl Garrett.
To construct these buildings, the Foundation had to address four existing structures, including two buildings that had to be demolished. A small home on the property was also removed, with the usable part being relocated to Leakey.
The fourth building was one with historic value: known locally as the Girl Scout House, the small Victorian at 800 Barrett Street had been used by local Scout troops since 1974. Generations of Girl Scouts used the house, which fell into disrepair and was purchased by the H. E. Butt Foundation in 2009.
The house’s history precedes the Girl Scouts: it was erected in 1910 by Lee Wallace, a Kerr County judge who was in office when the current courthouse was built in 1926.
“The house has real intrinsic value,” said David Rogers, President of the H. E. Butt Foundation. “Rather than destroy local history and resources, we wanted to preserve both.”
On Saturday, December 15, the house was moved to a vacant lot one block from its original location. The house is now owned by Clint Morris, whose father, Jim, is a local jeweler and longtime participant in the Foundation’s Laity Lodge programs.
Rogers said that the Foundation wanted to invest in its local headquarters even as it invested in local history—and recycle local resources as much as possible.
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The H. E. Butt Foundation is a private operating foundation based in Kerrville, Leakey and San Antonio, Texas, working to cultivate wholeness in people and institutions for the transformation of communities. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization financially and legally distinct from the H-E-B Grocery Company.
